


Dero

by spotty8ee



Series: For Better Or Worse Au [3]
Category: Final Space (Cartoon)
Genre: Assassination mentioned, Bad Parenting, Childhood Trauma, Illegal Activities, Mother-Son Relationship, Past Abuse, Underage Drinking, Underage Smoking
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-19
Updated: 2019-10-19
Packaged: 2020-12-24 01:30:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,541
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21091142
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/spotty8ee/pseuds/spotty8ee
Summary: With one last pit stop before saving John, Sheryl and Gary have a moment in the service station parking lot.Hey I didn't say it was good, but they have a moment.





	Dero

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this one out super fast. Don't expect this all the time, its just how it worked out. I am interested in hearing suggestions. Maybe also make a tumblr. What do you guys think?
> 
> Thanks for reading again!

Thick smoke swirled in the air of the space station. The large, glass dome of the refuel orbited earth lazily, as ships both big and small came and went. She was near the bathrooms, staring up at where the Earth sat, just beyond the windows. It was so big and so blue. Hard to believe that, for a time, it was a place where humans lived and died, never leaving its surface. Now they could go just about anywhere they wanted.

Course, they needed the right machines. 

Sheryl grumbled, recalling the moment she realized their new ship had no Lightfold capabilities. Without that, they could be flying the rest of their lives and not go farther than Mars. Thankfully the service station here was able to add one, for a small fee. Some of the stolen money went to that.

It would be done sometime tomorrow, so they had to wait till then to get to Furtasanguinis. It was a place Sheryl had gone to a few times in the past for work, a seedy, backwater planet, that sold anything you could want, and even things you’d never want. If there was anywhere to start looking for info on these keys, that was it.

However until the ship was done, they’d have to stay here at the rest stop.

The bathroom flushed before Gary pushed the door open. He came out, looking up at his mom. 

“Someone put blood in the sink, so I, ugh, didn’t wash my hands…” He mumbled, eyes darting.

“Thats a gas station bathroom for you.” Sheryl snorted. She started to lead him over to a more deserted area of the parking lot, near a rather dead looking garden.

“What do we do until the ships done?”

“Well I dunno about you, but I’m getting some shut eye.” Sheryl said, sitting down on the curb.

“Where are we gonna sleep?” Gary asked.

Sheryl lay down on a parking space, putting her arm under her head against the curb. She gestured to the asphalt with her foot. “Pick a spot.”

“Here?”

“Yeah.”

“On the ground?!”

“Yeah.” Sheryl opened an eye to glare at him. “What? Cha’ too good fer the ground?”

“Well, um… I dunno.” Gary glanced to it. “Isn’t it dirty?”

“Won’t hurt you.” Sheryl rolled her eyes. “I slept on the ground plenty times before. Least there aren't snakes and scorpions here. Count your blessings.”

“Oh.” Gary looked up and down the parking lot, holding the bug jar to his chest before he decided to sit right next to Sheryl. He put the bug down and pulled off his coat, bunching it up to use a pillow, before laying beside his mom. He moved the jar to his stomach again and Sheryl grunted, happy it was over.

….  
….  
….

“Mom.”

“Eh?”

“I can’t sleep.”

“No shit…” Sheryl scowled. “What do you want me to do about it?”

Gary shifted, uncertain. ‘I- I dunno… Tell me a story?”

Sheryl opened an eye to glare at him.

“Please?”

“Uuuuuuuuggggggghhhhhhhh….” She groaned, but relented. What the hell story could she tell him? Unless she was fibbing details she wasn’t one for imagination. Maybe she should just tell him a true story. “Well, when I started working at my job, my first task was to kill the leader of the planet Kabish.”

“What was your job?”

“Mmmm…” Sheryl frowned, but it was thoughtful. “Well Gary, you know how the Earth has the Infinity Guard. As its knight in shining armor that supposed to protect everyone, be perfect, clean and marketable on on TV?”

“Uh, I guess?”

“Well, my job was to do the opposite. The Earth’s forces can’t be perfect Gary. They can’t get jobs done by saving everyone, all the time. Sometimes, to get things done, you have to be dirty, hurt people and hide any evidence that you exist.” Sheryl looked back at the planet above. “I did the stuff no one else would do, so Earth could be safe… or make things cheaper, sadly…”

“What do you mean?”

“The job I was talking about is a good example. You see there's a fruit called the Kabbige. Only grows on Kabish. Taste like sugary candy, but it's as healthy for you as spinach.” Sheryl said. “However, Kabish is a poor planet, and the leader there figure that since Kabbige was so popular with Earth, which is rich, they could charge more for the Kabbige and start doing more social services for their people.” She shrugged. “Build schools, hospitals, feed their hungry, that sort of stuff.”

“Thats good!” Gary smiled.

“Yeah, well, Earth didn’t like it. Cost of a Kabbige would go from 5 dollars to 15. So they started to make stuff up about the leader being a bad guy. Made his own people weary of him. Then they sent me in. I snuck into his house and shot him in the back of the head while he was sleepin’.”

“What?! Why?!”

“So the politician that Earth was supporting could become leader. He kept the cost of Kabbige low in return for being brought to power.” She shrugged. “I mean, he turned out to be a dictator, but at least the Hollywood types get their cheap, surgery crap.”

Gary stared at her. “That doesn't sound like the right thing to do…”

“Oh, I agree.” Sheryl said. “But I wasn’t paid to do the right thing Gary. I was paid to do a job. There's a difference.”

“But what didn’t you just say no?”

“In my business, once your told what's happening, its too late. Your in too deep by that point. If you don’t do it, they kill you for knowing too much and find someone else.” Sheryl explained. “It was also my first job out of training, and I was eager to prove myself.”

“What happened to Kabish?”

“Genocide last I heard.” Sheryl said. 

“What?”

“Its when they kill a lot of people at the same time for being different in a few small ways.”

Gary’s frown deepened. “So, since you killed someone, a lot of people died. Just to save ten dollars a fruit?”

“I killed someone, because I was told to.” Sheryl said. “I was just a tool in that situation Gary.”

“Yeah but you did kill the guy so he could be replaced with the guy who killed everyone.”

Sheryl looked away. “Well, maybe one day you’ll be forced to make a decision between your own life or doing the right thing. Then we can talk more about it.”

Gary clutched the jar tighter. They lay just staring up at the Earth, which looked darker than before.

“Welp. Good night.” Sheryl said, closing her eyes again.

…  
…  
…

“Mom.”

“Eh…” Sheryl ground out through her teeth.

“Mom, I’m scared…”

“No. Shit.” She sat up to glower at Gary. “What do you want me to do, huh?”

Gary looked miserably to his jar. “I just… I keeping seeing that guy… die?”

Oh.

Sheryl looked to the dumpster a few feet away, trying to think. What had helped her when she had first killed…

She pulled open her coat and took out a few things.

“Take a swig of this. Its gonna burn your nose but don’t spit it out, it's expensive.” She said, handing over her flask. She watched him try a tiny bit, before screwing up his face.

“Is this cough medicine? Are you giving me cough medicine?!” Gay asked, looking unhappy.

“Its booze Gary.” Sheryl snapped, lighting up a smoke. “Now drink more.”

Begrudgingly he did as instructed, taking a few more mouthfuls before Sheryl took the flask back. Gary sat, trying to get used to the flavor in his mouth, when Sheryl held out her half used cigarette. 

“Now inhale some of this.”

“Smokings bad for you though.”

Sheryl shook her head and grumbled. “Gary, people smoke because it's the fastest way to relax- well, the second fastest, your way too young for the first.” She grimaced. “Just smoke the fuckin’ thing.”

“...” Gary took it in his hands, pulling it to his lips to suck in.

He broke out in a coughing fit a few seconds later. It was rather violent and he almost dropped the ciggy.

Sheryl chuckled in a fond way. “Oh yeah, the burn of your first smoke. Taste like shit, makes you feel like shit, but you keep coming back.” She shook her head. "Welcome to Flavor town." 

Gary managed to breath again, speaking in a croaking voice. “Adults are weird!”

“You gonna finish that?”

“No!”

“Give.” She got the smoke back and started to finish it.

Gary lay back down, still coughing a bit. 

“How do you feel?”

“Dusty…”

Sheryl thought about this. “Hmmm, well I guess that makes sense.” When she finished the smoke she lay back down beside him. She could see Gary rubbing at his chest. “What are you doing?”

“It's all warm…”

“That's the liquor.” Sheryl shrugged. 

“Oh. Its kinda nice…” Gary admitted, seeming to calm down some more. 

“Thats why people drink.” Sheryl shrugged. “Now will you go to damn sleep already?”

“Yeah…” Gary stretched a bit before curling up. “Good Night, love you…”

Sheryl froze, but looked away. She mumbled an unintelligible sentence before taking a swig of her flask.

The Earth towered over them.

**Author's Note:**

> I should note a bit about Sheryl's situation with her assassination job is that its more complex than she talks about. This is because a lot of the reasons aren't really confirmed. When she was told what she needed to do there was no mention of it being for cheaper fruit. It was just to kill someone. She sorta connected things years later, though even then its just speculation at that point, with no concrete facts. 
> 
> The reason she doesn't really try to defend herself is because she believes what Gary says to her to be true. Just like when Gary confronts her in the show about the reason why she and John didn't work out. She doesn't argue with what Gary tells her. I think this is because she knows its true. When she blamed Gary for all her problems with John, it was really to protect herself from her mistakes. She knows it's not true, but due to issues in the past she thinks the only one who can protect her is herself. Physically, mentally and emotionally. So she dose just that and tried to rally around with lies.
> 
> She's very complex.


End file.
